When Trouble Follows A Coach

June 27, 2004|By KEN DAVIS; Courant Staff Writer

After leading UCLA to victory over Arkansas in the 1995 NCAA championship game, Jim Harrick had joined the upper echelon of college basketball coaches. He brought winning back to Westwood, put a smile on John Wooden's face and resurrected the tradition of Bruins basketball.

Nine years later, any game of word association involving Harrick's name would likely draw a response of scandal or fraud.

Harrick resigned and Georgia fired his son, assistant coach Jim Harrick Jr., in March 2003 amid accusations of payments to players and academic fraud. Former Bulldogs player Tony Cole accused Harrick Jr. of paying Cole's phone and hotel bills. An investigation by Georgia uncovered academic fraud involving Harrick Jr., who granted credit hours to three players who didn't attend his class on basketball coaching and strategies.

If the need for academic reform wasn't obvious before, it certainly gained support this March when Georgia released 1,500 pages of documents in its response to the NCAA regarding four rules violations in the basketball program.

Included was the 20-question test used by Harrick Jr. in his Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball class. The final exam, and only test, students took in the course became a nationwide embarrassment to the university. (Question No. 2: ``How many players are allowed to play at one time on any one team in a regulation game?'')

Georgia banned its team from the 2003 Southeastern Conference and NCAA tournaments, a move that cost the school more than $1 million.

``It's been very difficult,'' Georgia coach Dennis Felton told the Atlanta Journal and Constitution on the one-year anniversary of Cole's accusations. ``We're perceived in a poor way. A lot of folks believe they don't have time to be fooling with Georgia right now.''

The NCAA infractions committee is expected to rule soon, informing the Bulldogs of its findings and handing down any necessary additional penalties. But the NCAA ruling will not bring an end to the case. Georgia's attorney, Ed Tolley, said in April that the infractions committee would take ``extra special care in writing an opinion'' because of a federal lawsuit Harrick brought against the school. In the suit against Georgia, NCAA president Myles Brand and 11 other defendants, Harrick claims university officials defamed him and his son and denied them due process.

Georgia is the third consecutive school Harrick has left in turmoil. Coaches such as Harrick, who was hired at other schools despite his past, hurt the NCAA's image. The cumulative penalties that are part of the NCAA academic reform package, referred to as ``historical'' penalties, don't do much to prevent that. In fact, the progression of warnings might create more opportunities for coaches to escape NCAA penalties by changing jobs.

If accountability is part of the reform movement, shouldn't penalties follow coaches to their new locations?

``That's a great question,'' said University of Hartford president Walter Harrison, chair of the Division I Committee on Academic Performance. ``That's one of the questions our committee has to decide.

``I don't know if it's legal. I'm not sure it's even necessary. If a university president hires a coach who has had a terrible record in academic success and his teams have been penalized, he or she ought to be held accountable for that.''

Harrick was fired by UCLA on Nov. 6, 1996, for an alleged recruiting violation and lying about an expense account. UCLA was later placed on three years' probation for violating rules and improper benefits to athletes during Harrick's tenure. Harrick sat out one season, then coached the next two seasons at Rhode Island.

On June 9, the NCAA infractions committee ruled that violations that occurred in Rhode Island's basketball program during the tenures of Harrick and Jerry DeGregorio were ``secondary'' and provided only minimal advantages. The NCAA accepted Rhode Island's corrective and punitive measures, including the loss of one basketball scholarship.

Former UConn deputy athletic director Tom McElroy takes over as AD at Rhode Island on July 1. He said athletes at URI are doing ``extremely well academically,'' regardless of any perception caused by the school reporting violations to the NCAA. McElroy's contract includes a bonus for academic achievement by athletes, but he said that had nothing to do with the Harrick case.